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Good communication from leaders can inspire employees and provide organizational benefits such as increased employee satisfaction and retention. This handy guide will help to ensure your own communications initiatives are both professional and successful.
1. Make Communication One of Your Top Strategic Priorities
Effective and timely communication is a core responsibility for leaders. A communications plan summarizing how you will inform employees in a way that is meaningful to them is essential when leading any organizational initiative. When any kind of change is happening, employees want to know exactly how it will affect them. An effective leader will share this information directly and immediately. Having a communications plan in place will give you the confidence to communicate clearly and methodically with all your key stakeholder groups.
2. Convey Complex Messages in an Accessible Way
One of the key aspects of being a communications leader is the ability to take complex messages and make them accessible to all your stakeholders, whatever their level of seniority. This means giving them the benefit of your knowledge and experience without confounding them with unnecessary detail or jargon. In short, it is important to ask yourself the question, ‘What do people really need to know?’
3. Get the Right Message to the Right Audience
Organizations have countless ways of keeping in touch with their employees, e.g. newsletters, intranet sites, email updates, formal and informal meetings. Before you do anything, it’s important to think about the message you want to communicate and who you want to communicate it to, as this will help you establish the most appropriate method for communicating that message to your target audience.
If the objective of your communication is to change behaviors or gain buy-in to an idea or project, for instance, then face-to-face delivery is often the most effective method of communication. You might therefore consider using a one-to-one or team meeting or cascading the information down via your managers. Computer-based communication methods such as email or posting a message on your organization's intranet tends to be less personal but is a good way of communicating important information to as many employees as possible, and all at the same time.
4. Don't Shy Away From Uncomfortable Truths
With leadership comes responsibility, and sometimes that means having to deliver bad news. The challenge is deciding what to share and when. While it is important to be as honest as possible, it is equally important not to cause undue worry to employees or external stakeholders. When timed carefully, however, candid communication can help to galvanize much needed action and support.
5. Remember to Listen as Well as Talk
When communicating strategically, it can be easy to put most of your efforts into getting your key message(s) across. But it’s also important to keep listening to what people within and outside the organization say. How have people reacted to what you have communicated? Do they need more information? As things change within the organization, are you ready and able to adapt your communications approach? Senior team meetings, briefing sessions with your managers, and informal chats with employees can all be useful ways to help you to keep your finger on the pulse.
6. Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Feedback
It is good practice to seek feedback from your employees on your communication methods. Asking them for feedback will help you tailor your upcoming communications accordingly. It has the added bonus of making them feel valued members of the team, and more likely to support your strategies in the future.
You may find, however, that employees are reticent to put forward their thoughts on your internal communications. If this is the case, you may wish to ask someone senior or even external to your organization that you trust to review your communication style (written and oral). Such feedback can be invaluable in helping you to improve your communication skills.
7. Use Internal Communications Expertise
Most large organizations have a dedicated communications department, who will be happy to provide guidance to the management team, e.g. they can offer you guidance on the most appropriate communication channels for your needs. It is a good idea to make use of such expertise if this is available to you in your organization. Your communications colleagues may also be able to help you measure the impact that your communications have on the organization and help you modify them accordingly.
8. Be a Role Model
Whatever your core message, whether you are encouraging a continuous improvement culture or asking employees to embrace change, above all, it is important that you are seen to practice what you preach. Your key messages should therefore be reflected in what you say, and the actions that you take, in order to set the standard for others to follow.
